Tranvía planning, Fraudulent Chinese school contracts, Alligator out of its element, Orchestra season begins, Opera and ballet, Tango

Lunes, 6/1/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Conciertos – The OSC will perform its first concerts of the year el viernes, 10/1 a las 20:00 and el domingo 12/1 a las 11:00 in the Catedral Vieja with a program including Strauss, Dulcamara, Mozart and more.

The Joker – The film will be screened este lunes, 7/1 (sic) from 19-22:00 in the centro cultural La Guarida (Mariscal La Mar y Luis Pauta).

Tango – There will be dinner show with the the Sanluistango group from Argentina este viernes at the Hotel Victoria (calle Larga y Borrero). Go to their Facebook page for more info. <Doesn’t say if it’s the hotel or group’s page.>

Teatro – The Teatro del Cielo is preparing “Amore” which will premier el miércoles, 5 & jueves, 6/2 in the sala Alfonso Carrasco of the CCE.

Pinocchio rolls down Hayana Capac in last night’s Day of the Innocents parade. (El Comercio)

Opera & ballet – The Coro Polifónico and Orquesta Sinfónica de la U. de Cuenca will perform “Cinco Escenas de Ópera-Ballet Sinfónico Coral” (Five Scenes of Choral Symphonic Opera-Ballet) el jueves, 23 to el viernes 25 (typo?) de enero a las 20:00 in the teatro Carlos Cueva Tamariz. The chorus will sing parts of Carmen, Aída, and Il Trovatori with a dance accompaniment.

Del cuerpo del periodico –

Craftspeople – the Empresa Municipal de Desarrollo Económico (EDEC EP -Municipal Economic Development Company) is calling for craftspeople who are interested in exhibiting and selling their work at the portal artesanal on Bolívar y Hayna Cápac. Go to its web page at www.edec.gob.ed to download the form to register. Take the filled out form to EDEC on the plaza. For more info, call 4079-396. <I shouldn’t need to tell you what language your call needs to be in.>

Otras cosas –

Titular – 3 contractos con firmas falsas (3 contracts with false signatures) – The Contraloría General del Estado (Comptroller’s office) announced that it detected falencias (shortcomings – your word for the day) in the contracting of 3 milenio schools in Sayausí, Quingeo y Pancho Negro to a Chinese firm. Resumes for professionals from Cañar and Azuay were included in the contract, but the professionals did not have contracts and were not aware they were presented as part of the team. There was also water, sinking, and leaks in the slabs at one school. The $16 million contract for the 3 schools was awarded under a Régimen Especial instead of the usual public contracting process. Under the Special Regime process, a specific firm can be awarded a contract practically without a competition. <Sounds like a sweetheart deal to me.>

Máscara Dorada – The Golden Mask is ready to be awarded to the winner of last night’s Mascaradas 2020 parade. 30 groups participated in the event.

<This is for you local history buffs.> Until 1981, the parade had been organized by Radio Cuenca, and the Amistad Club marched costumed as clowns and the characters of el Chavo del 8 <Google it for yourself and then watch reruns.> In 1982, the club members took over the organization of the años viejos and costume parade. The first parade didn’t have over 800 contestants and the route was from San Blas to San Sebastián. There were also 2 parades – one in the afternoon, which was later dropped, and one at night. The contestants were family groups until the club got surprised by an entry from its first institution which was the universidad UNITA which changed the parade into a fiesta. Later, the U. of Cuenca entered. At first groups consisted of 10-15 people and later increased to over 100, all marching on a single theme.

The San Blas-San Sebastián route was changed when people started climbing the trees in Parque Calderón. The new route was along Solano, but the plants along that route were destroyed, so now the route is down Huayna Cápac. After a time, another problem emerged: the famous “sanduchito” where paraders accosted women who were watching. This was solved by members of the Amistad Club who were costumed as clowns. The clowns known as “morcilla” would identify the harrassers and beat them. After that, reports of harrassment went away.

Roscas – In Cuenca, it is a tradition for families to buy a rosca de Reyes, which is a cake in the shape of a ring. <Same thing as a New Orleans king cake?>

Tranvía – The Concejo Cantonal met yesterday to discuss reforms to the ordinance that regulates Tranvía operations. Topics included the integration of the tram with the bus system and the fares. This council meeting follows workshops with the council members which resulted in no concensus. The city is projecting a daily ridership of 38,000, but the system needs 90,000 to be self sustaining.

From El Periodico de viernes – The mayor announced that the Tranvía will start commercial operations in junio, 2020. Testing started last jueves, and testing with passengers will start in febrero. Before the system starts running commercially, 18 subsystems need to be completely functional including signal lights and signage, ticket sales, mechanical maintenance and the electrical power supply. The train operators need to have a certain <unspecified> number of hours logged, and the train needs to complete the route in 35 minutes. Currently they are completing the route in an average of 65 minutes <Which is understandable, since the accompanying photo shows the train following a motorcycle cop and two employees who are walking ahead of the train. I bet the train would get to the end of the route faster if it ran over those two employees.>

Caimán rescued – A 3-year-old caimán was rescued from the Laguna de Yahuarcocha in Ibarra. The rescue operation involved park rangers, technicians from the Imbabura Environmental Department, the Environmental Protection Unit of the National Police and the Ibarra Fire Deapartment. It’s not known how the caimán got into the lake, which is at a much higher elevation than alligators’ natural habitat. <Dumped after it got too big and ate the chihuahua?>

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne
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Editor’s note: Jeanne’s Periodico is a translated digest of news from the Cuenca daily newspaper El Mercurio. If details, such as event dates and times, do not appear in the translation, they did not appear in the newspaper. The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.